Turn the Radio Up Loud and Get Down

With his frantic release schedulable, prolific songwriting, and genre bending catalogue, Ryan Adams could be the rock version of Prince, if Prince himself wasn’t already the rock version of Prince. And even though he hasn’t changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol (yet), Adams sure has his eccentricities like his gangsta rap album he released through his website and it is not wise to request Summer of ’69 at one of his live shows.

Even with wide range of songs, his last couple albums have themselves been relatively narrow like the soft rock of 29, the country rock of Nashville Nights and the puck rock of Rock ‘n’ Roll. His latest album Cardinology is more diverse than those albums and even more than his last outing Easy Tiger. As one can guess by the title, this is another album where Adams is backed by The Cardinals who really shine on tracks like Let Us Down Easy.

That diversity makes Cardinology Adams’ best work since Gold. The album opens with a trio of tracks, Born into a Light, Go Easy, and Fix It which is the closest Adams have ever gotten to stadium anthems, the later featuring a smooth bassline that sounds lifted from a The Bravery song. Adams goes back to his punk rock roots with Magick that might as well had been recorded in his garage and sounds better for it.

Then there is the impassioned Sink Ships, which starts out as a folk song but ends with Adams screaming “The War Is Over” even though he is left on one of those sinking ships. Cobwebs sounds like something The Killers left off Sam’s Town even though it would have been one of the better songs on the album. And for those that go to Adams for their super sad song fix, go straight to the end of the album for Stop, a piano and strings ballad that is sure to satisfy your current fix.

Song to Download - Magick

Cardinology gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.